Charlie Christie – Play-offs must be looked at to make fair for all clubs involved
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I always suspected that, whichever Scottish Championship side did manage to come through the plethora of play-off matches, the two-legged final against St Johnstone would be a step too far.
I was gutted to be proved correct. The players had done terrifically well to get themselves back in the first leg after going two goals down and at half-time at McDiarmid Park we looked the stronger side with the Saints players looking increasingly nervous as the half progressed.
Sadly, two quick fire goals in the first eight minutes of the second half swung the momentum fully in the Perth side’s favour and we never really looked like getting back in the tie.
Whilst the disappointment was palpable in our excellent travelling support and in the stadium this week it has been great to see the ‘buzz’ return to the club recently – very reminiscent of past times and hopefully we can build on this going into next season.
The league campaign itself was a strange one and certainly an opportunity missed. At the outset Kilmarnock were the probable favourites but, after a quite superb start by ICT, we found ourselves sitting top until losing to Arbroath at home at the end of October and we never really regained our early season promise thereafter.
Make no mistake, Kilmarnock were there for the taking as part-time Arbroath admirably demonstrated right up until the second last game of the season when they were narrowly beaten by them.
Kilmarnock along with ICT, had nine league defeats compared to Arbroath’s five but the significance of draws with three points for a win, proved crucial.
And so, it was on to the play-offs for us - the structure of which is certainly imbalanced. It is not surprising that nobody finishing third or fourth in the Championship has ever gone on to achieve promotion.
Whilst I realise that getting existing Scottish Premiership clubs to vote for two clubs being relegated automatically is highly unlikely, it must make sense to revisit the format of the matches for the Championship play-off sides.
Playing six matches in 21 days after a full season is nonsensical.
Why not play two one legged ties and a one-off final match at a neutral venue? This reduces the games by half and redresses the undoubted advantage for the club finishing second bottom of the Premier league.
Billy Dodds has taken us closer to play-off promotion than any other manager.
But we must now look forward to our sixth consecutive year in the Championship. With the addition of hugely ambitious Cove Rangers and Queens Park, along with relegated Dundee, things will not be any easier next season.
